“They’re drinking from a barrel next to the lantern,” hissed Riogan into her
ear.
This is so awkwardly worded.
Editors? LOL WHO ARE THEY?!
They disguised themselves as mercenaries and left the Grand Imperial Opera.
Chapter 27 summary: Caina and Riogan break into a warehouse, drug the guards, and take the slaves over to the local police station. It's basically a repeat of the first time that they did it, only there are more slaves, but the guards were already quite drunk when they got there.
The next morning, Caina goes to Theodosia. They talk about Caina's affair with Alistair, about his wife's suicide. Thodosia asks if Caina was in love with Alistair. Caina says that he was a weak-willed man who would rather dabble in slave trade than to divorce his shitty wife. He was a good lover, but that's about it as far as his good traits go.
The two of them meet up with Halfdan, Riogan, Julia, and the magi who'd helped train Caina, Rekan. They talk about how Haeron is probably going to make a move soon, and that they've been ordered by the emperor to take Haeron out if necessary. Caina tells them about all of Haeron's guards, and that it won't be easy to get to him.
But then they talk about how they need to take out Maglarion. Riogan had brought a spear with him, and he pulls the cloth off from the tip. It's made of a strange material called ghostsilver, known only to the ghosts (obviously), and it's basically a counter-agent to magic. They hope to stab Maglarion with it enough to the point where the bloodcrystal he made from Caina's blood wouldn't be able to heal him anymore. (They don't know how big that it is, so...)
Rekan also mentions that there's word that Maglarion has the ear of a couple of important magis. That he's offered to teach them some arcane arts in exchange for a rain-storm over the city. Nobody knows what to make of this information.
Later, Halfdan tells Caina that guards had found Alistair's dead body lying in the streets. They think that it was poison, but the circumstances are so bizarre that the local police have asked Halfdan to come take a look. Caina goes with him.
Chapter 28
The storm. Why did Maglarion want the magi to conjure a storm over Malarae?
The answer seemed just out of reach.
"He's planning something," whispered Caina.
“He's planning something”. No fucking shit, Sherlock. You've known that he's been up to something since Caina was rescued.
"I don't know," said Halfdan. "Perhaps we can kill him before he reaches his goal, whatever it is."
They returned to the Grand Imperial Opera in silence.
Chapter 28 summary: Halfdan and Caina go to the police station, where Theodosia's son takes them into the room with the body. He warns them to brace themselves before he pulls the sheet back. Alistair is in rough condition, and Halfdan chews Tomard out for having brought a “pestilence corpse” into society instead of just burning it.
But Caina is quick to point out that this isn't a pestilence... she doesn't know what it is, but it's not a disease. If it was, then everybody around them would have already gotten sick. Halfdan reluctantly agrees with her assessment. Caina can feel the evil magic off of him, and knows that Maglarion had a hand in this. But nobody knows why.
As they leave, Caina touched Alistair's hand one last time. His corpse lunges up and starts to attack her. She slashes at him, but realizes how stupid it is because a slice that would fell a man is not one that would fell a zombie. Eventually, she douses lamp oil all over him, while Tomard attacks with a sword, and then lights him on fire. Tomard is like “I don't know how to tell my commander why the entire fucking tower burned down.” As Halfdan and Caina leave, they talk about how the trap was triggered, and why Maglarion would have set it in the first place. They continue not to have answers.
